


Fish are Friends

by muckkles



Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Needles, Stitches, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-23
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-04-05 18:28:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,908
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4190382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/muckkles/pseuds/muckkles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Boyfriends Garrett and Anders live together in a sweet secluded beach house and everything is sunshine and coconut oil until a very unexpected house guest washes up in their back yard. </p><p>Rating and tags may update in later chapters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Local Vet Saves Fish Man

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly just can't get enough of the ot3. And mermaid AUs are my favorite! This first chapter was a lot of fun to write.
> 
> Specials thanks to tumblr users giltleaf and fucktheon for betaing!

“Garrett?”

Anders pushed open the front door with his hip, barely managing to keep the stack of boxes he was carrying from tipping over, and stepped over the threshold.

“Garrett? I could use some help with these!”

He listened for any sounds of movement for a moment and when silence was his only answer he sighed and carefully maneuvered himself toward the dining room table where he set his things down. He passed through several more rooms to continue the search for his boyfriend. Garrett’s Jeep was still in the driveway, but the man himself was nowhere to be found.

Anders peered through the glass door at the back of the house. Their home sat right on the ocean, a piece of prime real estate that Garrett had inherited from his mother’s side of the family. It was nice and secluded, their closest neighbors being at least a mile down the beach in either direction. The few copses of trees provided an extra layer of privacy and also blocked Anders’ line of sight to their dock. 

He pulled out his phone and tried calling his absent boyfriend. He was sent to voicemail twice and shoved his phone back in his pocket in frustration. Knowing Garrett, he was probably just down by the water for a quick midday swim, despite having promised to help Anders out earlier that morning.

Anders slid his worn flip flops back on and stepped outside onto the back deck.

“Garrett!” he called, raising his voice to be audible from the beach. 

Still no response.

He started walking the path that led through the sparse grass and dunes behind their property and made his way down to the beach proper. 

There was no one in sight. 

Anders walked out onto the dock, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand. It was long – didn’t need to be since they didn’t actually own a boat - but he reached the end quickly enough. A book along with Garrett’s phone and a pair of his ratty boat shoes sat abandoned on the wooden planks.

His heart picked up the pace as his anxiety set in. He leaned over the edge of the dock and peered into the water, looking for any trace of Garrett in the dark depths. 

Suddenly there was a great splashing near the shore that could be heard clearly over top of the ambient waves. Anders whipped his head around and witnessed two figures washing up onto the beach. One of the people was quite a bit larger than the other with a dark mop of hair that could only have belonged to Garrett.

Anders sprinted down the dock and towards the people lying motionless halfway out of the water a few yards away. 

It felt like an eternity before he reached them and he skidded to his knees in the sand, shaking hands reaching for Garrett’s face and instinctively checking his throat for a pulse. He was still alive and breathing, but barely. Each breath sounded ragged and painful and after a moment Garrett wheezed and started coughing up sea water.

“There, there love. That’s right. Get it all out,” Anders felt hot tears running down his cheeks as he rubbed soothing circles against Garrett’s back, at a loss for how to help ease his discomfort. 

“Get him… off me,” a quiet voice rasped.

Anders was able to come down from his panicked haze long enough to notice the other man, legs trapped under Garrett’s considerable weight. He slipped one hand under each of Garrett’s arms and dug his heels into the sand in order to haul his limp body away and flip him onto his back. When he looked back at the stranger he let out a strangled gasp and almost sent Garrett dropping back down to the ground. 

Where he had expected to see a pair of legs, there was instead one continuous limb, tapering toward a point and covered in shimmering scales that disappeared beneath the foam. Anders’ eyes widened further when the water pulled back enough to reveal a large fin at the end of it flopping weakly against the sand. 

It was a fish tail. 

There was no other way to describe it.

Instead of legs, this man had an enormous silver fish tail that blended seamlessly with his very human torso. 

When he got over his initial shock at the sight of the tail itself, Anders was able to take in the large gash that started near the man’s hip and wrapped diagonally across the front of his tail. The cut scales along the edge of it were jagged and broken and blood was still trickling slowly from the wound.

His attention was pulled up to the man’s face as coughs wracked his body and he fell still, possibly unconscious. 

“Fuck!”

Anders looked back at Garrett as the man slowly sat up while holding a hand tightly over his forehead.

That was all Anders needed to let him know his boyfriend was going to be okay. He placed a quick kiss to the top of his head before getting to his feet and scrambling back up the beach. 

Anders was a veterinarian and made more than enough house calls to have emergency medical supplies on hand, but they were stowed away in his van. He tore through the house and finally made it to the front driveway where he ripped the back door of his van open with such force that it swung back and bruised his arm. Anders cursed and dug through different containers until he found the ones with gauze, sutures, needles, bandages and anesthetic. He grabbed a bundle of towels as he ran back through the house. He left the things he had gathered on the deck’s outdoor table and sprinted back down to the water’s edge.

Garrett was sitting rigidly and staring at the man lying next to him, darting his eyes back and forth from the glimmering tail to the stark white hair tangled around the stranger’s shoulders.

“Garrett, thank god you’re still awake.” 

His head whipped around at hearing Anders’ voice and he pinned the blonde with his wide-eyed stare.

“Anders… This man. He’s… He’s a-“

“A fish, yes I know love,” Anders interrupted leaning down to check the man’s vitals. “Can you stand? I think I’m going to need your help carrying him back up to the house.”

Anders was speaking hurriedly and his words seemed to take a moment to register in Garrett’s head. Finally Garrett nodded numbly and stood up on shaking legs. When his stance stabled out he squatted and easily scooped the fish man up into his arms in one motion before walking swiftly up the beach. Anders ran ahead to lay down some towels on the deck and prepare the supplies he thought he would need.

He heard Garrett climb the steps behind him and turned around just as he was laying the man down on the deck. 

“Get the hose. We need to wash the sand out of the wound.” 

Anders was exceedingly calmer than he had been on the beach. This was territory he was familiar with. Relatively speaking. He had never worked on a human-fish hybrid before, but still. Operating, healing; this was his area of expertise. 

Garrett handed the hose to him and Anders knelt to gently rinse out the gash. The cut was shallower than it had initially looked, just barely cutting into the muscle at the edges. Garrett hovered nearby and watched what he was doing over his shoulder. 

When the area he was going to be working in was clean Anders stood and handed the hose back to Garrett. 

“I need you to be prepared to hold him down if he wakes up during this. I brought anesthetic, but I don’t want to give it to him immediately just in case he has a bad reaction. I obviously have no experience caring for a… a-“

“A merman?”

Anders looked up at his boyfriend who was gazing back at him without a hint of a joke on his face.

“… Right. A merman.”

Anders shook himself then kneeled down by the man’s hip and got to work. Garrett took up a position by his head, hands resting lightly on his upper arms and ready to clamp down if he woke up. 

Fish flesh was fundamentally different from human flesh, or any other mammal for that matter. Anders had only ever seen people cut fish open, not sew them back up so he was unsure how to go about this at first. A closer look at the muscles thankfully showed them to be a lot closer to a human’s than a fish’s. He wondered briefly what a dolphin’s muscles would be like. He may have been a vet, but he had never worked on anything quite that exotic. 

Anders used a pair of large tweezers to remove all the broken and loose scales around the operating site and then began stitching the wound closed. He felt Garrett’s eyes on him as he worked. It was a slow process, but eventually he tied off the last suture and reached behind him for the bandages. 

“I need you to lift his, uh, tail. So I can secure the bandages around him,” Anders said and Garrett didn’t hesitate to switch sides and do as Anders asked. He wrapped the cloth tightly around several times then tied it off. Both men stood and Anders walked over to the hose to rinse the blood off of his hands. As he approached the table again a laugh bubbled up out of his chest.

“Anders?”

The laughter kept coming in short sharp bursts. Anders felt like he was going into hysterics. 

“I just operated on a fish! A giant fish! Attached to a man! This is real. This really happened,” Anders put a hand over his face and laughed into his palm. This whole situation was absurd. His body was shaking again and he couldn’t stop babbling. “No one is ever going to believe me. ‘Local vet saves fish man.’ Now there’s a headline for the National Enquirer.”

“Hey maybe they’ll pay you royalties to use your story.”

He felt Garrett place a firm hand on his back and he turned his head toward his boyfriend, laughter dying in his throat as quickly as it had started. 

“You’re hurt!” Somehow it had taken Anders this long to notice the trail of blood dripping from Garrett’s hairline to the bridge of his nose. 

“What?” Garrett’s hand instinctively lifted to his face and he pulled it away to stare at bloody fingertips. “So I am.”

Anders sighed. “Come here you. And sit down. You’re too tall.” 

Garrett pulled one of the deck chairs out from the nearby table and sat obediently to let Anders clean up his forehead and check out the injury.

“What’s the damage?” Garrett wasn’t too concerned. This wasn’t the first time he had needed patched up. It wasn’t even the first time that Anders was the one to do it.

“You’re going to need a couple stitches too. Sit still for a moment,” Anders said, threading another surgical needle. “What on earth happened? Do you always pick fights with… with _mermen_ while I’m out?”

Garrett grinned. “Not always,” he said. His smile faltered slightly. “The truth is a bit more embarrassing actually. I just tripped. I was sitting down at the end of the dock when I heard your van pull up. I was trying to stand up to go greet you when I tripped over my own damn feet.”

“Maybe you should try growing a fin instead.”

“Oh very funny,” Garrett said sarcastically. “Anyway I must have hit my head hard enough to knock me out because I don’t remember much after that except-“ Garrett stopped speaking suddenly and his eyes shifted to where the merman was lying on the deck behind Anders. “He… He saved me.”

Anders pulled back. “Saved you?”

“I saw him briefly. I think. I guess before I blacked out completely. He must have pulled me back to shore after I fell into the water.”

Anders raised an eyebrow but continued with his task. “That doesn’t explain the giant gaping hole he was sporting.”

“Your guess is as good as mine on that one.”

Anders smirked but there was concern in his eyes. “You probably have a mild concussion.”

“Probably.”

Anders pulled the last stitch closed and leaned back to examine his handiwork. Before he could step away completely Garrett grabbed his wrist and pulled him down for a soft kiss. “Thank you,” he murmured against Anders’ lips. He eventually let him go and looked back down at their fishy friend.

“We should probably make sure your savior doesn’t need any more saving himself,” Anders said as he finished packing away his things.

“Do you think he needs to stay wet or something?”

“No idea.”

Anders turned around and leaned against the table. The two men looked on in silence at their unconscious charge. His breathing seemed to be a lot less labored at least, but there was no way of knowing when he was going to wake up. Or even _if_ he was going to wake up for that matter. 

Garrett reached between them and squeezed Anders’ hand. 

“I think we should at least move him to a bed.”

“We would never be able to get the smell of fish out of the sheets.”

“Anders. He saved my life. Isn’t my life worth some stinky sheets?”

Anders laughed and all at once he felt entirely worn out. 

“Alright, let’s bring him in. Then we’re taking a good, long nap.”


	2. Exceedingly Inconvenient

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fish man wakes up!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was kind of hard to get out. Writing from Fenris' point of view is a bit of a challenge but hopefully it will come easier to me the more I write!

Fenris’ entire world was pain.

Everything was black and he couldn’t move and there were no emotions just the pain.

He slowly approached consciousness and that only made the pain more focused, more intense. It ached and stabbed across his front and he automatically tried to curl in on himself, tried desperately to reach forward and pull away whatever it was that was hurting him so much. 

His body was stiff and everything was too hot, too dry. 

He was screaming. 

He was only vaguely aware of it. 

He couldn’t stop.

He clawed at his abdomen and fought to open his eyes but tears blurred his vision and he couldn’t blink fast enough to clear it.

His throat was raw, another ache to add to his list. 

There were voices nearby.

“What the fuck!”

“He’s going to tear out his stitches. Hold him down. I need to knock him out.”

“Didn’t you see that?”

“It was just a trick of the- Garrett, please! Hold him down!”

Suddenly his arms were being yanked to his sides. He wanted to fight but couldn’t make his exhausted body obey.

Then the pain began to ebb away and he sobbed in relief. 

He could feel his body quickly going numb and slipped gratefully back into the dark.

\---

When Fenris woke next, it was not exactly to pleasant sensations but at least the pain that had wracked his body previously seemed to have dulled to the point where it was manageable. However his head was pounding and his stomach ached, not just from the wound but from hunger. 

The wound. That’s right.

His eyes flew open and he tried to sit up, only to realize that his arms were tied above his head. It was too bright and he fought to focus on his surroundings. His eyes jumped around and his breathing sped up as panic set in. 

“Woah, woah! Easy there!”

Fenris stopped struggling as his attention shot to the person sitting next to him.

Sitting. 

As in sitting with legs. Above water.

The person was human and they were both on dry land. 

Not just that, but they were inside a building. Fenris had no idea how far away they were from the ocean. The walls seemed to close in on him and he tried but failed to keep his heart from lurching into overdrive.

“Hello?” 

Fenris turned his head to focus on the human once more. 

“How are you feeling?”

The human was talking to him in a deep soothing voice. 

Fenris didn’t know how to respond. 

He was in pain and he was afraid for his life. 

He wasn’t sure how it would go over to reveal these weaknesses to this man.

He opened his mouth to say something but his breath caught in his dry throat and all he accomplished was panicked wheezing. 

“Shit! Sorry.”

The man jolted forward and Fenris flinched before he realized he was being offered a glass full of water. The man held it to his lips and Fenris sucked it down quickly, sighing as he felt some relief from the dry air around him. 

“We weren’t sure when you would wake up again. Anders gave you quite a bit of sedative.” 

The human was looking at him expectantly but Fenris didn’t have anything to say to that.

The man shifted uncomfortably and scratched at his bearded jaw. He looked almost familiar.

“Do you, uh… Do you remember anything?”

Fenris just stared at him. He wasn’t sure what this human was looking to get out of him by speaking so casually. If he was going to torture him, shouldn’t he just get on with it? He set his jaw and started to turn away from the man only to freeze again when he saw the cloth wrapped around his tail.

He should have had a gaping wound there. He had seen the blood.

Did this human help him? 

He tried to reach his hand out to touch the bandages but only managed to pull against his restraints in frustration.

“Oh, sorry! We had to tie your hands as a precaution after what happened last time you woke up.”

The man leaned over Fenris and he instinctively shrunk away from him. Then he felt the ties around his arms loosen and he pulled them down to rub at his wrists.

The man sat back again and Fenris looked at him in silent confusion. Why would he untie a captive?

“I know all this must be strange to you, but Anders said you spoke earlier so I would really appreciate some sort of acknowledgement that you understand me?” The man phrased it as a question but continued without giving Fenris a chance to answer. “We could start with introductions. I’m Garrett Hawke.”

Fenris studied this Hawke and suddenly remembered why this man looked familiar. Brief and fragmented images flashed through his head. He was in pain and hiding from his pursuer when suddenly this human had fallen through the water in front of him. Fenris had backed away, hoping the man would swim to the surface without noticing him. Instead he had continued to sink, eyes closed and body limp. He was heavy and it had taken all of Fenris’ remaining strength to drag him back to the beach. He wasn’t sure why he had done it, especially in the state he was in himself.

Fenris opened his mouth. His throat was still raw and dry and his voice came out raspy. “You’re the asshole who almost drowned,” he croaked.

Hawke gaped at him for a moment, and then he burst into laughter. 

“Yes, that would be me,” he said in between chuckles. 

Fenris shifted and grimaced both at Hawke’s flippancy and the stiffness in his back and tail.

“What are you going to do to me?” Hawke had untied him, and the room he was in certainly did not seem like a cell. There was an unlocked exit and the piece of furniture he was lying on was padded and colorful. It would have been pleasant to lay there if it wasn’t so dry. Every movement dragged the fabric beneath him against his skin and he felt hyper sensitive to it with no water to soften the feeling.

Hawke furrowed his brow in confusion, “Do to you? Ah, nothing. I mean we’re going to help you recover-“ Hawke was interrupted by a distant noise presumably from another part of the building they were in. He looked toward the door. “Anders is back from the clinic. He’s going to want to check on you now that you’re awake,” he said and glanced back at Fenris. “Be right back.” 

And then Fenris was alone. 

He attempted to sit up and examine his injury, but only managed to prop himself up on one elbow. He felt so heavy and clumsy above water, and his headache was not helping him concentrate. This all felt like some hellish nightmare. Coming to severe bodily harm and being captured by humans was not on his normal daily itinerary anyway.

Fenris reached forward and ran a hand along where the harpoon had sliced open his flesh. Even through the fabric wound tight around his middle it was sore to the touch. He was just managing to peak underneath the bandage when the door to the room burst open once more and an unfamiliar human hurried in with Hawke close on his heels. 

“Oh my god, you’re moving. You’re really awake. You’re really real,” the human, who Fenris assumed was Anders, said. He ran a shaky hand through blond hair. Hawke approached the foot of the bed and Anders stepped up to be at Fenris’ side. His eyes darted to where Fenris was lifting up the edge of his bandage and he swatted his hand away. “Stop that! You’ll never heal properly if you insist on messing with it. When did you wake up? Garrett hasn’t been an ass, has he? Are you feeling alright? I was worried the medicine I gave you might have an unusual reaction since I’m not familiar with your biological make up.” His tone kept flipping back and forth from frazzled disbelief to sincere concern and Fenris was beginning to feel dizzy trying to keep up. 

He jumped when Anders leaned forward and pressed the back of his hand to Fenris’ forehead. “You feel warm and you’re just as pale as when you came in. Please tell me how you’re feeling.”

“My head is pounding and my skin feels too tight.” Fenris managed to say. He flexed his fingers and blinked several times. He was definitely beginning to feel worse the longer he was awake. 

“You’re probably dehydrated.”

“You don’t say?” Fenris laughed humorlessly and coughed into his fist. “How long are you planning on torturing me? Let’s just get this over with.”

Anders looked aghast, “Torturing you? I was the one who patched you up! Where on earth did you get the idea we wanted to torture you?”

“You dragged me away, tied me down, and kept me in this place that’s so hot and dry I feel like I’m shriveling up. Please explain to me how you plan on not torturing me. Or better yet, save your breath. There’s already more hot air above water than I care for.” 

Even in Fenris’ weakened state, that tirade felt good. If he was to die today, at least he would not do so quietly.

Hawke groaned and dragged a hand down his face.

“We are such idiots.”

Anders, flabbergasted and sputtering, turned his head towards the other man in surprise, “What? What are you talking about?”

“We’ve been keeping a fish man on a bed. Out of water. For almost a whole day. Remember what I said yesterday? About how maybe he needs to stay wet?” Hawke nodded his head toward Fenris as understanding passed over Anders’ features.

“Well, what do you think we should do, just throw him back in the ocean?”

“That would be optimal,” Fenris said sardonically. 

“We can’t do that! At least not on good conscience. I may have closed your wound, but it’s still susceptible to infection and if your stitches opened up and started bleeding again – which they would with excessive movement, and that includes tail flapping – you would be a beacon for sharks and other nasties. There’s no telling if you would survive. No, you’re not leaving until you’re fully healed.” Anders seemed to have made up his mind.

Fenris bristled at the idea of being subject to a human’s whims. “You claim to wish to help me yet you keep me captive!” 

“It’s for your own good. You’re my patient now and I refuse to release you from my care until I can be ensured of your safety and good health. That’s that, I’m putting my foot down.” Anders’ tone was firm and his eyes flashed with determination. 

Fenris raised an eyebrow. “I wasn’t aware your foot was up previously.”

Hawke barked a laugh and both of their attentions were drawn back to the dark haired man. 

“Oh, don’t mind me. I would rather stay out of this fight. Regardless of when we let him head back to his fellow fish folk, we need to keep him comfortable in the meantime. He’s our guest after all. Speaking of that, I feel incredibly rude for not having asked your name.”

Anders blinked, apparently surprised it was just now occurring to either of them to ask. 

Fenris studied Hawke’s face carefully before slowly replying, “It’s Fenris.”

Hawke grinned, “Well, Fenris I think I have just the idea to help you feel more at home.”

\---

Ten minutes later, Fenris found himself lying in a long, white porcelain basin. Water flowed steadily out of a pipe in the wall and onto his tail.

“Really, Garrett? The bathtub?” Anders stood with his arms crossed and stared incredulously at the scene before him. 

“What, did you want him to _actually_ shrivel up?”

Admittedly, Fenris most likely looked completely ridiculous. He was too long to fit properly. he had to sit up against the back of the tub and his tail still dangled over the side on the other end. But this arrangement was much more palatable than the situation he had found himself in previously. He felt better and better the higher the water rose up around him.

“Okay but why did you carry him to the master bathroom? This is…” Anders sighed and leaned against the counter. “Exceedingly inconvenient.” 

Fenris scoffed, “I believe I’m getting the worse end of this deal.” He slid down as far as he could manage so that the water covered his nose and he breathed in gratefully while rubbing his hands along his aching gills. 

Hawke stepped in front of Anders and placed his hands on the smaller man’s hips. “It’s better this way, believe me. He’ll be close by if he needs anything from us and if we get any human guests he’ll be out of sight. We can manage using the spare bathroom for a little while.” 

Anders pouted, “This is the tub with the jets, though.”

Hawke laughed and placed a small kiss on Anders’ nose which made the other man smile reluctantly in return.

Fenris felt as if he were witnessing a rather intimate moment between the two and busied himself with trying to wet the top half of his hair. 

Of all the humans he could have ended up at the mercy of, these were an unlikely two. Their motives were actually proving to be benevolent but their methods were certainly questionable. 

Still, he was feeling looser and more at ease, the most pain he now felt being from his stomach.

“Please tell me the two of you have something for me to eat on hand.”

Hawke looked up and stared at Fenris. “Truly we are turning out to be the worst caregivers of all time.” His head suddenly whipped back toward the man standing next to him. “Speaking of, have we fed the cat today?”

Anders’ eyes slowly widened in horror and he practically bolted out of the room. Hawke laughed to himself and leaned against the open door to watch him leave.

Fenris cleared his throat, “Ah, still hungry over here.”

Hawke glanced back at Fenris and immediately stood up straight again, “Right! Sorry!” And he dashed off as well, only to return just as quickly to peek his head through the doorway. “Uh, what exactly is it that you eat?”

“I thought that would be obvious. Fish, mostly.”

Hawke rubbed his chin through his beard, “Hmm, I think we have some fish sticks left in the freezer?” 

Fenris lifted an eyebrow, “That sounds like it would work.” His mouth was watering just anticipating a good meal. He wasn’t entirely sure when the last time he had eaten was.  
Hawke smiled. “Great! Be back in a jiffy!”

Fenris closed his eyes and settled against the back of the tub once more as Hawke left him alone. For some reason, he found himself wearing a small smile as well.


	3. Bonding Moment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garrett helps Fenris settle in, meet the family cat, and take baby steps toward trusting his caretakers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaaah it's been so so long since I've updated anything. I hope this chapter flows ok. It's going to take me a little bit to get back into the groove of things. I'm really excited for some future chapters for this fic so hopefully I'll be able to pump a few more out before school and work bog me down too much this semester.

Garrett stood in the seafood section of the supermarket and perused his options.

 

It had been two days since Fenris woke up and began inhabiting their bathtub. In that short time, he had proven to be a lot more difficult charge than either Garrett or Anders had anticipated. The first offered meal of fish sticks had not gone over well. Fenris refused to touch them until Garrett removed the breading and then he knocked the plate over into the bath water to cool them down since he had never eaten hot food before. Garrett and Anders had watched in silent horror as he scooped a soggy piece out of the water and put it in his mouth, only to immediately spit it out and demand better. It was like feeding a picky child.

 

That was why Garrett was now shopping for fish. Fenris insisted on eating it raw and although Anders had run to the store to stock up on the day of the fateful fish stick fiasco, Fenris had such a large appetite after being injured that Garrett already had to be sent on a follow up food run less than 48 hours later.

 

He wasn’t exactly sure if the species of fish mattered, but he settled on a couple steaks each of the cheaper ones. Even being on the coast seafood was a more expensive dining option and he internally mourned the upcoming slash to his bank account. He made a mental note to scope out some local fisherman and compare prices.

 

As the butcher handed over the packages, Garrett impulsively snatched up a couple containers of the sushi made in-store for his and Anders’ dinner then headed towards the check-out area.

 

\---

 

The sun was setting and everything was quiet when Garrett arrived home. He walked in the front door to hear light snoring coming from nearby. A peek into the living room revealed Anders sprawled on the couch with his laptop open on the coffee table in front of him. Garrett smiled softly and crept past him towards the kitchen to put away his haul, then carried two of the fish steaks and half of the sushi to the master bedroom. The bathroom door was already open when Garrett approached but as soon as he stepped inside he stopped short.

 

A staring contest was being had, and Garrett’s entrance had done nothing to break either party’s focus.

 

Fenris sat rigid in the tub, back straight and hands on the rim as if ready to haul himself out of it. His gaze was fixed on an orange cat perched on the toilet seat, tail flicking and gazing back calmly.

 

5 seconds passed with no one making a sound or movement. Then slowly the cat’s hindquarters rose up and its front sunk low, ready to attack. Fenris carefully eased backwards, eyes never leaving the cat poised to strike. Garrett’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two of them, a smirk growing on his lips.

 

Then all at once the cat leapt right toward Fenris’ head. Fenris let out an alarmed yelp and lifted his arms in defense. Garrett dissolved into giggles, then full blown laughter as the two flailed and splashed and hissed at each other.

 

Finally Fenris managed to fling the cat from him and Garrett jerked forward to catch the poor soaking animal in his free hand.

 

“I see you’ve met Ser Pounce-a-Lot,” Garrett laughed and set the food down on the counter so he could soothe the frazzled cat.

 

Fenris grimaced and plucked damp cat hair off of his person, “I wouldn’t have minded postponing our introduction.”

 

“Aaw, Pounce was just telling you he likes you,” Garrett lifted one of Ser Pounce-a-Lots paws and waved it at Fenris who only frowned harder.

 

“He has an interesting way of showing it.”

 

“Well he _is_ a cat,” Garrett turned and released Ser Pounce-a-Lot into the bedroom and closed the door to the bathroom behind him. “I just got back from the store. Care for some dinner?” He picked up one of the cuts of fish and unwrapped it so he could hand it over to Fenris. “I think that one’s mackerel?”

 

Fenris flipped the fish over in his hands once to look it over and then took a large bite out of the corner. He devoured the steak quickly and Garrett handed him the next one. He sat down on the toilet seat and opened up his own dinner so they could eat together, but by the time he had opened his soy sauce packet and popped the first piece of sushi in his mouth Fenris was finished eating and rinsing his fingers off in the bath water.

 

“Okay, you refused to eat the fish sticks I made for you but honestly how do you even taste your food if you’re eating it that fast,” Garrett made a point of slowly chewing and swallowing before moving on to the next bite.

 

Fenris looked like he was fighting the urge to roll his eyes, “I can still taste it. Everything in the ocean could be a potential predator or scavenger. Hunting isn’t easy and there’s always something or someone ready to take what you’re too slow to consume. You have to eat what you can, when you can.”

 

Garrett mulled that over for a moment, “Well… you’re safe here. And no one’s going to take your food. So you might as well try and enjoy it. You can even try some new things.” He looked down at his lap, “Like sushi!”

 

Fenris made a face but leaned over to get a better look, “What is it?”

 

“Actually it has raw fish in it so there’s at least one thing you’ll like. This one has tuna, avocado, whatever these little crunchy green bits are, rice, and seaweed. Do you eat seaweed in the ocean?”

 

“When schools are scarce,” Fenris replied and gingerly picked up a piece of sushi between two fingers.

 

“Schools of fish I’m assuming? But speaking of that, do merpeople have formal schooling? What’s your society like? Is there a governing body or some other structure in place? Are there cities, communities-“

 

Garrett’s rambling cut off abruptly when he noticed the look on Fenris’ face. It was some cross between being overwhelmed by the sudden deluge of questions and… hurt? Pained?

 

Garrett cleared his throat awkwardly, “Ah… you don’t have to answer any of that. I’m just curious. Most people write the existence of merfolk off as fantasy and yet I have one sitting here in my bathtub of all places.” He chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.

 

Fenris was quiet. He looked down at the piece of sushi he still held in his hand and after a moment tentatively put it in his mouth. Garrett waited apprehensively but Fenris eventually looked up at him and offered a weak smile, “It’s good.”

 

Garrett grinned, “I’m glad you like it!” He looked back down at the food that remained and glanced at Fenris who was staring at it hungrily. “No more though. This is my dinner and I’ve seen the way you eat.”

 

Fenris looked taken aback for a moment, then he chuckled and settled back against the wall of the tub once more, “Fair enough.”

 

Garrett poked at his dinner for a moment before saying as casually as he could, “So…” He hesitated and cleared his throat. Fenris arched an eyebrow and Garrett resolved to just blunder on as best he could. “Can I ask you some questions? About being a merperson I mean. You must understand how curious we are.”

 

Fenris seemed unsurprised by the request but still he took a moment to mull it over.

 

“That depends.”

 

“On?”

 

“On what you want to know. I won’t lie about anything, but some topics are…. difficult to talk about.” A shadow seemed to pass over his face and it made Garrett uneasy.

 

“We can start with the basics? Would questions about your body be fine?”

 

The dark mood Fenris had succumbed to seemed to pass just as quickly as it came on and he gave a small smirk. “My body?” he said teasingly.

 

Garrett’s rolled his eyes, “Oh great the merman knows innuendo. I’m just interested in our biological differences.” Fenris’ smirk only grew wider. “Like the glowing!” Garrett blurted.

 

Fenris’ smile dropped and he looked away, down at his own body. Garrett mentally kicked himself. The first question he asked and he already screwed it up. He was about to apologize when Fenris looked back at him, his expression apprehensive.

 

“How do you know about that?”

 

Garrett shifted on the toilet seat, “Um.. when we first took you in and you were in our guest bed you woke up once before we started giving you the pain meds, remember? And well, you were glowing. Or at least you kind of flashed? Anders only saw the end of it and he insisted it was just a reflection off your scales but I know what I saw.”

 

Fenris looked back down at the back of his hands. Garrett’s eyes followed as they traced the silver lines swirling over Fenris’ skin. Fenris took a moment to respond, still looking down, “These markings are common among my people, although to be covered to the extent that I am is rare. And their purpose is not unique to us. They can light up, usually at will, but sometimes in periods of physically distress. We use them to hunt, signal messages, attract partners…” his voice trailed off.

 

“Bioluminescence.”

 

They both jumped as an unexpected third voice sounded from the doorway. Garrett spun around on his seat, a hand to his chest, “Anders! You’re up.”

 

Anders smiled sleepily, “Apparently harboring a mythic creature is not conducive to a regular sleep schedule.”

 

Garrett winced sympathetically. His boyfriend had suffered from insomnia for most of his adult life and stress definitely triggered bouts of it worse than anything else. Garrett tried to leave him be wherever he ended up finally crashing.

 

Anders rubbed his hands down his face and said, “I was doing some research before I passed out. There have been studies on the effects of healing stitched wounds in aquatic environments, mostly using turtles. Infection was common, but they released the animals back into the wild for the experiment. In a contained, clean environment there shouldn’t be much risk. Still I’d like to change your bandages today so they don’t start to mold. And I would also like to hear more about your glowing.” He leaned forward a bit and sniffed. “Is that dinner?”

 

Garrett smiled, “Yours is in the fridge.” He set his food down on the counter and turned back to the tub. “Okay, then lets change those bandages!”

 

Fenris grimaced but managed to not complain vocally when Garrett bent over to unplug the drain. He gave Fenris what he hoped was a sympathetic look as he went to scoop him out of the tub, uncaring of how wet his clothes were getting. Fenris lifted his tail and looped his arms around Garrett’s neck to ease the process. He turned around to see that Anders had already laid out some towels and a basket of supplies on the tile. Luckily the master bathroom was spacious enough for all three of them not to feel too cramped.

 

As Garrett laid Fenris down on the ground their eyes locked briefly, merely inches away from each other. Garrett felt his face grow a little hot and quickly stood up to allow Anders access. Fenris propped himself up on his elbows to observe what Anders was doing which gave Garrett ample time to cool off and ask himself what the hell that was all about. And then like a responsible adult, instead of dwelling on the sudden twinge of attraction curling in his gut, he decided to peer over Anders’ shoulder. He was just finishing cutting the old waterlogged bandages away.

 

“Excellent, the wound is still clean and it doesn’t look like you have any signs of infection. The salt water probably helped a bit with that but there’s no telling what could have gotten in here if you had stayed out there.” Anders was too busy poking around the stitches to notice Fenris had gone a little green.

 

Garrett cleared his throat, “Ah, Fenris? Are you okay?”

 

Anders glanced up at Garrett then jerked forward and whipped his hand out to stop Fenris as he reached toward his wound. Fenris’ gaze remained fixed on the angry red skin that cut a straight line diagonally across his hips. When it became apparent he wasn’t about to rip his stitches out, Anders slowly let go of his wrist.

 

Garrett watched Fenris trace the edge of the closed gash where scales had been broken and pulled out. The green tinge had left his cheeks and now he just looked rather pale.

 

“I shouldn’t have survived this,” he whispered, almost to himself.

 

Anders reached forward again and grabbed Fenris’ hand with both of his own. Garrett couldn’t see his face but he had known him long enough that he could imagine the earnest look that must have been in his eyes.

 

“Fenris. You saved Garrett’s life. For that I am the most grateful man in the world. If I had been unable to save yours in return I- I…” his voice wavered.

 

Garrett carefully stepped over Fenris’ tail to kneel down opposite his boyfriend. He folded his hands over Anders’ hands which still clutched Fenris’. He briefly looked his boyfriend in his teary eyes then moved his attention to Fenris who turned to meet his gaze.

 

“What Anders is trying to say is that you don’t need to feel unsafe here. We’re going to protect you Fenris. We owe you that much.”

 

Fenris stared at their bundle of hands for a long moment before replying.

 

“I don’t feel unsafe with you.”

 

Anders wiped at his eyes quickly, “Good. That’s good.” Garrett felt him squeeze Fenris’ hand and then they were all releasing each other. Anders busied himself by rubbing an ointment over the stitches and Garrett helped lift Fenris up as he tied new bandages around his hips. Fenris watched on in silence. It was impossible to tell what he was thinking, but their little bonding moment had clearly had an effect on all three of them.

 

As soon as Fenris was situated back in the tub and the water flowing again, Anders stood and placed his hands on his hips, “So.”

 

Fenris looked up from trying to rewet his long hair and raised an eyebrow. It seemed to be a signature Look of his and it was really starting to endear him to Garrett if he was honest with himself. He couldn’t believe that he was still standing here checking out a merman while his boyfriend stood literally a foot away. Anders would understand, wouldn’t he? Garrett made a mental note to discuss their charge’s physical attractiveness with him later. For now, Anders was speaking again and it seemed prudent to listen.

 

Anders shifted on his feet a little and crossed his arms.

 

“Are you going to tell us how you got that gash to begin with?” he asked. His look was stern, the one he reserved for the most stubborn of pet owners he worked with at the veterinary clinic. Garrett had had it directed at himself on more than one occasion and he could testify that it was not fun.

 

Fenris didn’t say anything immediately and Anders stood patiently waiting.

 

Garrett forced a laugh, “Well, why don’t we pretend you didn’t just bring up the one topic we’ve all very obviously been avoiding since Fenris got here and go eat dinner.” He tugged on Anders’ elbow but he didn’t budge and instead kept staring steadily at Fenris who had resumed scooping water up over his arms and chest. Garrett sighed and rubbed his temples. He was getting ready to drag Anders away when Fenris finally spoke up.

 

“It was a man.”

 

Now that piqued both of their curiosities.

 

“A human man?” Anders asked taking a step toward the bath.

 

Fenris nodded. “A fisherman. An extremely skilled and ambitious fisherman.”

 

“How did he do this to you?”

 

“He shot a harpoon at me.”

 

Garrett nodded in understanding, “He must have thought you were a shark scaring off his catch.”

 

Fenris balled his hands into fists and snarled “No! No he… he knew me. He was aiming for me.”

 

Anders and Garrett turned to each other with wide eyes, both of their mouths open to voice a dozen questions when Fenris cut them off.

 

“I don’t wish to speak of this anymore.” He did his best to turn away from the two men in the limited space he had available to him, shoulders hunched and tense.

 

“Fenris, please!” When he got no answer but continued silence Anders sighed and Garrett was grateful when he allowed him to lead him from the bathroom. As soon as they were out of earshot Anders turned to him.

 

“He’s hiding something!” he hissed, glancing back at the bedroom door as if he expected Fenris to be standing there listening.

 

“He’s been through a trauma, Love,” Garrett said and rubbed his hands up Anders’ arms in what he hoped was a soothing manner. “He’ll come around.”

 

“We’re just trying to help! He says he feels safe with us but how are we supposed to protect him if he won’t even tell us about this supposed wild fisherman out for his blood? And if his story is true why haven’t we heard about it? You know how the locals are with their gossip and superstitions.” Anders trailed off and flung his hands in the air in a physical display of his frustration.

 

Garrett pursed his lips. “ _Technically_ he said he doesn’t feel unsafe with us. Not that he feels safe.”

 

Anders rolled his eyes. “Details! Be serious, Garrett.”

 

Garrett huffed out a breath through his nose. “He’s starting to trust us, I can feel it. But I don’t think pushing him is going to get us very far. Come on, let’s get some food in you and you can tell me about the research you found and we can try again tomorrow.”

 

After a moment Anders nodded, “Yeah… Yeah, you’re right. Of course. I’m just… I’m so stressed out right now and-“

 

“It's no wonder you're stressed," Garrett interrupted, giving a lopsided smile. "I mean you know what they say about fish and house guests. I think our particular situation compounds the issue." 

 

“Love, sometimes I’m not sure whether to laugh with you or at you or forgo both to strangle you.”

 

Garrett chuckled, “Well, that makes two of us.”


End file.
